Double Trouble
by N. Silvutra Mayhem
Summary: Opal Koboi wants immortality. The Black Knights take a detour as two genius masterminds work to retrieve her newfound Code, and with Haven and Pendragon as targets on her journey for world domination, she has to be stopped. Of course, it's not that easy.
1. Collision 01: First Contact

This story is set—

Artemis Fowl: Post Time Paradox. Arty has no magic, Angeline knows everything, past!Opal is running amok, human!Opal is in prison, etc.

Code Geass: R2, post Turn 14. Black Knights have been exiled, Rolo and Xingke are on their side, Jeremiah has joined them, Shirley thing happens, half-insane!angsty!Lelouch yay.

Important: when the Geass is activated, the symbol is only visible to Geass-related people. Normals see nothing out of the ordinary.

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><p><strong>Double Trouble<strong>

by N. Silvutra Mayhem

**Collision 01: First Contact**

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><p><em><strong>Republic of China<br>**__**Exact location unknown**_

"_V.V. is dead._"

Those had been the first words that C.C. had spoken to him over the video link, after he'd informed her that he'd found the location of the Geass Order. She had been sitting on the seat, knees held close to her chest and arms wrapped tightly around a Cheese-kun plushie. Her eyes had been downcast, staring at the half-empty pizza box on the table near her, but he hadn't gathered a sense of mourning. She'd been in a state of remorse.

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><p><em><strong>United States of Japan, temporary capital Penglai<br>**__**Zero's Quarters, Ikagura**_

_**Three hours ago**_

"What?"

"You heard me, Lelouch. V.V. is dead."

"That's impossible—how do you know?"

"I just do."

"But he's like you, isn't he? Immortal."

"Somebody took his Code."

"His what?"

"It is the Code which keeps us Code Bearers alive, and which enables me the power of Geass to be granted."

"So it's destroyed."

"Not destroyed. The Code can never be destroyed. Merely transferred."

"Then whoever killed V.V. now possesses his Code."

"Correct."

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><p>He hadn't pressed the issue further, but began wondering if he should have. C.C. had said herself that she held no link with V.V., a long time ago.<p>

"My lord," said Jeremiah Gottwald, voice crackling over the radio. "We are approaching our destination."

"Is this location the one you described?" asked Lelouch.

"Affirmative."

"Very well. We descend at landing point F-16."

"Yes, my lord."

"Brother?" asked a new voice.

Lelouch activated the video link to see his 'brother's concerned face. He smiled. "Yes, Rolo?"

"Are you sure you want to do this?"

"I'm sure," replied Lelouch. "Don't worry. We're just confirming the Order is gone, and then we can safely proceed with the plan. After all, we need a world where we can live in peace, right?"

Rolo nodded. "Right."

Terminating the connection, Lelouch's smile morphed into a scowl. Rolo Haliburton may have called himself a Lamperouge, and acted as his brother, but he would never replace his true sibling. Even though they shared the same purple eyes, and Rolo had Nunnally's soft brown hair, the boy would always be a stranger to the family.

_Nunnally, I'm coming._

The endless white sands around them shifted as he brought the Shinkiro into its descent. The magnificent beast rearranged its components to transform from the jet-shaped Fortress Mode to fifteen feet of glossy black steel; its humanoid Knightmare form. Lelouch's landing was textbook form, and a modified Sutherland and a golden Vincent touched down on either side.

Lelouch opened the hatch and descended the cord. When his boots sunk as soon as he stepped onto the sand, and the harsh glare of the desert sun beat heavily against his back, he knew the full Zero outfit – cape, cravat, helmet and facemask – was not a very good choice on his part. Rolo, in his blue Black Knights flight suit, and Jeremiah, in his long trenchcoat, did not show signs of discomfort when they walked up to his side.

In his mental memo, Lelouch made a note to get himself a spare uniform. Even Jeremiah had the sense to wear white!

The headquarters of the Geass Order were a set of ancient ruins, built on the edge of a small mountain. That much had been visible from the sky. It was only now that the presence of intricate markings could be seen, and least of all the flawless lines in the architecture made their mark. It reminded him of nature; he could tell with a glance the presence of several Golden Rectangles within its form.

Lelouch approached, Jeremiah and Rolo flanking his sides. He paused at the entrance briefly to run a leather-gloved hand along a white, stone pillar, taking in the symbols etched there. A crab, twin fishes, a leaf, a raindrop, a dragonfly, a swirl, an acorn and a stylized eight. A repeated pattern in some language unknown.

And then, the next instant, Rolo had moved a foot to the right. A struggling person was pinned beneath one foot, its head forced into the sand. Jeremiah reacted first: flicking out his arm-mounted blade, and keeping it at the person's neck. Lelouch knew without doubt that his brother had activated his Geass – the ability to stop time.

"What happened?" he asked.

"I heard a noise and this person appeared," said Rolo, voice completely level. "I stripped him of his gear and kept him alive because I thought you might want to ask some questions."

Indeed, a helmet, a childlike gun and what looked like a pair of wings attached to a backpack were thrown to one side. It was now that he noticed the person could not have been more than a child, but its pointed ears and a uniform that was undoubtedly military-issue suggested otherwise.

Lelouch could take no chances. If the Geass Order created such an unfeeling assassin in the form of Rolo, there could be more Geass-wielding children with abilities he did not know.

"Good work, Rolo," he said. "Do either of you two recognise him?"

"No, my lord," answered Jeremiah. "But I was not affiliated with the children."

"Rolo?"

Rolo, still smiling from his praise, lost some of his cheer and shook his head. "Sorry, brother."

"That's alright. You've done well." Lelouch knelt down, feeling the warm sand brush against the fabric of his pants, and mentally hoped that he wouldn't find any of it stuck in his clothes. "Jeremiah, lift its head."

The moment Jeremiah dug his fingers into the person's black hair and jerked it upwards, Lelouch had opened the slit on his Zero mask. He did not wear his contacts as Zero, and as soon as they made eye-contact – purple to green – he struck.

"You will answer my questions!" he called.

"Yes, sir," the person replied.

"Who are you?"

"Corporal Bern Kuler, sir."

Vaguely, Lelouch registered Rolo's frown. Could it be a third-party? "Corporal of?"

"The Lower Elements Police Reconnaissance department, sir."

Lelouch smirked. He was onto something.

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><p><em><strong>Lower Elements, Haven City<br>**__**Deep within LEP Headquarters, Police Plaza**_

The expression 'dropped everything from shock' did not normally apply. It was difficult for a person to literally drop everything, especially if they were holding something physical, as they would still have it within their hands from the moment the shock began to the moment the shock passed away.

Foaly, innovative, genius centaur extraordinaire, dropped everything from shock.

He could not believe what he was hearing. It was impossible; it...

He glanced down at his feet. The poor wings, his newest prototype, were ruined. He had been working on it for the past three months, nonstop. It was his current pet-project, eating up ten percent of the department's budget, but if it could be functional it would revolutionize wings as they were known today. The damage caused would set him back _weeks_.

But that wasn't the pressing issue. Foaly slammed the speed dial key in his haste, unable to believe what he was hearing.

It took two rings before the person on the other end picked up. Two rings too long.

"Wha—"

"_Commander Kelp!_" he shrieked. "This is an emergency! Drop _everything_ and connect to line twelv—"

"Calm down, Foaly. Take a deep breath."

Foaly tried to stop his chest vibrating so he could do so, but he ended up shaking his hindquarters instead. There was a good reason Trouble Kelp rose so quickly in rank: he was a good leader.

Trouble heard the exhalation, and spoke again. "Okay. What's the problem?"

"You-know-those-quarter-centurycheckupsofthe—"

"Slower."

Foaly imagined Trouble kneading his temples. He sighed.

"Just connect to line twelve. Make sure you're sitting down. You'll understand better once I send you the live feed."

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**A/N:** And here we have it.

This story is at war with my other Code Geass xover for updates (i.e, _go read it!_), and I use reviews to judge. So. Review? *shameless :D*

**Next****— Collision 02: It Ain't Pretty**


	2. Collision 02: It Ain't Pretty

**A/N:** Thanks for the reviews~ This story's tied with the other story right now, but slightly behind.

Also, disregard everything I said last chapter about nothing happening to Shirley. It turns out that whether something happens or doesn't happen, it doesn't matter, and it helps continuity a bit more if the Shirley thing _does_ happen.

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><p><strong>Double Trouble<strong>

by N. Silvutra Mayhem

**Collision 02: It Ain't Pretty**

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><p><em><strong>Lower Elements, Haven City<br>**__**LEP Headquarters, Police Plaza**_

"_D'Arvit!_"

Foaly rarely left his office. When he commuted to work, he always went along a pre-determined path that was the shortest way to where he wanted to be; with his gadgets. If he did leave his office, he still remained on the same floor, as many of the briefing rooms were nearby. In fact, there were several betting pools going on to see how many times he would leave at all.

Trouble Kelp, a quick system-check i.e. hack later, was not in his office due to the event of a particularly nasty prank, and working away on the fourth floor. Centaurs did not mind going up, but elevators were always awkward things when all four hooves rose felt momentarily weightless at the same time, and it always felt like others were checking out his hindquarters if there were a large number of people with him.

Not a pleasant sensation.

But, upon reaching the fourth floor, it was not a difficult effort to find the room he needed. Trouble's scream could be heard all the way from the elevator shafts, and Foaly made a note to look into better soundproofing once he fixed the wings.

"_Frond_," muttered Trouble, just as Foaly invited himself in. "Does Kuler have no respect for the People—?"

"Apparently not," said Foaly. "Looks like you didn't sit down."

Trouble jumped, and then visibly sighed in relief. "You have this recorded somewhere?"

"What do you take me for, a stinkworm?"

There was a wince. Then Foaly remembered that Trouble had left his office because someone dumped an entire bucket of stinkworms in there for some infernal reason.

"Should I activate the self-destruct on Kuler's gear?" asked Foaly.

"No. We don't want them to know they're being monitored. Private Alxim is too far away to catch any audio, and if that child could catch Kuler shielded then there's no telling what they can do."

There was no opportunity for a _mesmer_, either. One had to unshield in order to pull it off, and from the still-playing live feed on the screen behind them, it was more than obvious there wouldn't be enough time for an elf still green from the Academy to go in and take out the three of them, especially since the questioner was wearing a mask.

Speaking of the questioner...

"I ran a check on the databanks for them," said Foaly. "They're still running, but the one with the mask is some guy called Zero."

"Zero? Do we have an identity for him?"

"Nope. All we got is that he's a list of achievements, but I wouldn't call them that."

Foaly opened his laptop and remote-connected it to the screen. A few keystrokes later, Zero's profile appeared to the side of the feed.

"Killed a Prince Clovis la Britannia, humiliated a guy called Jeremiah Gottwald to save the life of an Eleven..." Trouble muttered, then raised an eyebrow. "A 'knight of justice'?"

"So he says." Foaly shrugged. "I did a lookup on Gottwald, and it turns out he's the guy with the blue hair."

"And he's working for someone who made him lose his noble rank?"

"Don't ask me. But don't forget, Zero's still a mask. He was declared dead once, this one might be different."

Trouble sighed. "Have you tried looking up the Knightmares?"

_God-awful things_, Foaly thought. Out loud, he said, "Nothing that could tell us what we don't know."

_Back to square one. _"What about the shuttles, then?"

"That's why I'm here. The Ruins of Yggdrasil were once a popular tourist destination, but now they're a nightmare to get to. The shuttle port under them, E226, has a vein of sakuradite running parallel to all the way to Haven."

Sakuradite. Everyone knew sakuradite, the superconductor that just so happened to be hyper-flammable. Trouble definitely did; combined with magma flares, it had been responsible for many chute collapses over the years.

"Didn't anyone notice that when they were _building_ the chute?" asked Trouble.

"Nope. It wasn't there. The vein was created by the deposit under the ruins, after decades of Mud Men messing with the ground."

Trouble shook his head. Stupid Mud Men. "And the nearest port?"

"E231. Eighteen minutes away."

"How long by wing?"

"That _was_ by wing. We don't exactly have the Chinese Federation mapped out, you know."

Trouble groaned and sank into his chair. "This is bad. You can't have come all the way up here just to tell me that, Foaly; tell me you have some good news."

"Actually, Qwan and No・1 were in Police Plaza, doing some training. They should be here right about... now."

Instead of two demon warlocks walking through the door, something else happened. Something much, much worse. From Kuler's helmet-cam, it began a small dot of red. The only indication there was something wrong lay within how Gottwald stiffened.

A second later: a phenomenal explosion.

Cracks appeared in the ruins, cracks that quickly spiderwebbed to the stone into pieces, and the millennia-old relic collapsed upon itself. The ground opened up below as the old underground city caved in, and sand began pouring down as if a drain had been unplugged. The three Knightmare Frames were swept along the wave; the others in the vicinity didn't stand a chance. Everything would be buried alive.

There was only one thing that could cause that sort of destruction. They didn't need to see the distinctive shockwave to know.

"Did that—"

"Was that—"

Elf and centaur looked at each other, blinked once, and the same message was visible in both their eyes: sakuradite.

"I want answers now, Foaly."

Foaly was already typing. "It seems Private Alxim thought it was a good idea to blow up the sakuradite under the ruins, Commander."

"D'Arvit!" Trouble hissed. "He should have waited!"

Foaly snorted. "Initiative can be a double-edged sword."

"How is he?"

"We've lost all signal; he's probably buried in the sand, maybe suffocated. I'm pulling up the most likely projected simulations of the explosion now."

All the Zero data disappeared to be replaced by several cross-section animations of the ruins, E226 clearly visible in the picture. The sakuradite deposits were highlighted in pink, the explosion in yellow, and of the four simulations there none of them looked particularly optimistic.

"As you can see," said Foaly, "there's a three out of four chance that the Mud Men will end up in Haven after E226 collapses. Otherwise, best case scenario is that you'll end up with sand flooding that will put half our chutes out of commission for two years."

"Is there any way to prevent E226's collapse?"

"If there were, it's too late now."

"_Frond_," Trouble muttered. Then he straightened and got out of his chair, automatically assuming command. "Right, Foaly. You keep in contact, I want regular updates. Go back to your office if you can work better."

"Alright. All my seismic equipment is there, anyway." Foaly paused. "Good luck, Commander."

Trouble nodded. "Likewise."

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**A/N: **Fear not, both our favourite super geniuses will feature next chapter.

Review? ;D

**Next—Collision 03: Mesmerising**


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